Bishop J. Jon Bruno conferred special honors on several priests and lay leaders during diocesan convention, naming five honorary canons of the Cathedral Center of St. Paul and presenting two newly instituted Bishop’s Awards for Service.
New canons are the Rev. Mary Crist; Donna Keller; the Rev. Pat McCaughan; the Rev. Rand Reasoner; and the Rev. John K. Saville III.
Bishop’s award recipients were the Rev. Canon Warren Nyback and youth ministries chair Shawn Evelyn.
Honorary canons
The Rev. Canon Mary Crist is a professor of education at California Baptist University, and serves at St. Michael’s Episcopal Ministry Center in Riverside where, Bruno said, “she reaches out to God’s people, some of whom live in the local park, engaging them in the unique community garden and other ministries on site.” Of Native American heritage, she leads ministry to that community in the diocese.
Canon Donna Keller, a member of St. John’s Church, Corona, has held many offices in the Episcopal Church Women over the past several decades, serving as president and as delegate to many church-wide Triennial meetings. She is president of the Bishop’s Guild, which offers financial and moral support for seminarians of the diocese and will mark its centennial next year.
The Rev. Canon Pat McCaughan is correspondent for The Episcopal News and editor of the clergy newsletter, the Angelus. She also is a reporter for Episcopal News Service and serves in pastoral ministry at St. Francis’ Mission Center in San Bernardino and St. George’s Church, Laguna Hills. “In every capacity … she serves with great distinction, talent, and integrity. She is wise and incisive, and she has a passion for story — especially the stories of God’s transformation in people’s lives,” Bruno said. Before ordination, McCaughan was a reporter for the Detroit News, and holds a Pulitzer Prize for her editorial work there.
The Rev. Canon Rand Reasoner has been rector of Prince of Peace Church, Woodland Hills, since 1989 where, Bruno said, he is a pastor “faithful, caring, devoted to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and always ready to assist God’s people in need.” Before ordination, Reasoner was a deacon intern to Bishop Robert Rusack, later serving at All Saints by-the-Sea Church, Santa Barbara, and Trinity Church, Fillmore.
Also a native son of the Diocese of Los Angeles, the Rev. John K. Saville III is a second-generation priest who is known for his devotion to family — to his parents, the late Rev. Canon Kimball Saville and Nellie Saville, and to his own family — and to his ministry as longtime rector of St. John the Baptist Church, Corona, and dean of Deanery 7, serving the Inland Empire area. Bruno commented, “You may also have seen him in recent years on national television as he advocated for the integrity and faithfulness of the Christian faith as expressed in the mainline tradition.”
Bishop’s Awards for Service
Bruno presented the first Bishop’s Award for Service to the Rev. Canon Warren Nyback during the Friday evening dinner on Dec. 6 in honor of his longtime ministry as chaplain to the retired clergy of the diocese.
The bishop presented the second award for service on Dec. 7 to Shawn Evelyn, chair of the Program Group on Youth and Young Adult Ministries, who has done much in recent years to help revitalize the diocese’s work in that area, Bruno said.